Saturday in Abu Dhabi, the most prominent MMA organization returns for UFC 308! This pay-per-view is loaded from top to bottom with champions, former champions, excellent prospects, and contenders. Six undefeated fighters are fighting on this card. Ilia “El Matador” Topuria defends his UFC Undisputed Featherweight title against the BMF champion Max “Blessed” Holloway in the Main Event.
Topuria has had a flawless start to his UFC career. He is 7-0 in the UFC with five finishes. He made the featherweight king, Alexander Volkanovski, look ordinary. He is one of the most well-rounded fighters in the UFC. Topuria has talked a lot of trash; he has called out fighters from featherweight to welterweight. But before you can move up divisions, you must defend your title multiple times.
But until now, Topuria has backed up everything he has said. He said he would knock out Volk, and he did just that. He beat, at the time, a top-three pound-for-pound fighter and arguably the best featherweight champion of all time in the UFC.
Topuria has an aura. He has superstar written all over him. The UFC plans to go to Spain in 2025, but Topuria faces the most formidable challenger of his career. Yes, Holloway lost to Volkanovski three separate times. But this is a different version of Holloway.
Even though Holloway has had tons of fights in his career, why isn’t this the best version of Holloway at 32 years old?
Holloway has been an underdog before. In his last fight against Justin Gaethje, he was a +145 underdog on DraftKings Sportsbook. And what did Holloway do in that fight? He didn’t just win. He didn’t just get a knockout. He did it in the most shocking and breathtaking way possible. He was winning all five rounds, and in typical BMF fashion, Holloway and Gaethje pointed to the ground and squared off, firing punches in the fight’s final seconds. Holloway knocked Gaethje out cold as the contest ended. It was fantastic. It was majestic.
This fight has significant implications for pound-for-pound status and fighter of the year. Alex Pereira has made an excellent case to win the yearly award, but the winner of this fight will also have two wins over elite competition. Holloway will make his 30th walk to the Octagon on Saturday. Holloway hasn’t lost at featherweight to someone other than Volkanovski since 2013 when Conor McGregor beat him. This is Holloway’s 10th title fight in the UFC.
Can Topuria prove he is the next big star in the UFC, or will Holloway become a two-time featherweight champion?
The Main Event is as good as it gets, but it doesn’t stop there. This entire PPV card is filled with great contenders and rising prospects. The co-main event is a fight fans have been clamoring for throughout the past year. Former middleweight champion Robert Whittaker takes on Khamzat Chimaev in a five-round co-main event bout.
This contest was supposed to take place in June, but Chimaev was hospitalized and had to withdraw. “Bobby Knuckles” is always ready and will fight whoever, whenever. He did that when Chimaev pulled out; Whittaker stayed on the card and knocked out Ikram Aliskerov in the first round.
Although the rankings will list this as a No. 1 vs. No. 13 contest, it is anything but that kind of mismatch. No. 13 Chimaev is a -238 favorite on DraftKings Sportsbook. When Chimaev entered the UFC in 2020, he won two fights in a week and fought a month later. It was thought that he would quickly move his way up the rankings and get a title shot, but everything didn’t go according to plan.
Chimaev has missed weight in the past at 170 pounds and has struggled to put together multiple positive performances in a row lately. The winner of this contest puts themself in a great position to get a title shot.
The third fight of the PPV is a title eliminator as No. 1 Magomed Ankalaev faces No. 5 Aleksandar Rakic in a light heavyweight contest. Ankalaev is 11-0-1 in his previous 12 fights and is in a prime position to be Alex Pereira’s next challenger in 2025. If Ankalaev wants a title shot, he must win and do so impressively.
No. 12 Lerone “The Miracle” Murphy faces No. 14 Dan “50k” Ige in a featherweight bout. Murphy is coming off his best win in the UFC, where he dominated veteran Edson Barboza in May. “The Miracle” is undefeated in the promotion and continues improving. He is facing another great striker in Ige, who fought Diego Lopes on four hours’ notice. Ige needs a victory after losing two of his previous three fights. Murphy is the -270 favorite, while Ige is +220 to pull off the upset.
One of the most fascinating prospects in the promotion, Shara “Bullet,” returns after winning his first two UFC fights. He has his toughest test in front of him when he faces fellow phenomenal striker Armen Petrosyan. This should be a great fight to open up the PPV broadcast, as both fighters are aggressive and looking for a knockout.
Main Card starts at 2 p.m. ET on ESPN+ PPV.
| Matchup: | Records: | Weight Class: | Odds via DraftKings Sportsbook: |
| (C) Ilia Topuria vs. (BMF C) Max Holloway Undisputed Featherweight Championship | 15-0 (7-0 UFC) vs. 26-7 (22-7 UFC) | Featherweight | -278 vs. +225 |
| #1 Robert Whittaker vs. #13 Khamzat Chimaev | 27-7 (17-5 UFC) vs. 13-0 (7-0 UFC) | Middleweight | +195 vs. -238 |
| #1 Magomed Ankalaev vs. #5 Aleksandar Rakic | 19-1-1 (10-1-2)vs. 14-4 (6-3 UFC) | Light Heavyweight | -395 vs. +310 |
| #12 Lerone Murphy vs. #14 Dan Ige | 14-0-1 (6-0-1 UFC) vs. 18-8 (10-7 UFC) | Featherweight | -270 vs. +220 |
| Shara Magomedov vs. Armen Petrosyan | 14-0 (3-0 UFC) vs. 9-3 (3-2 UFC) | Middleweight | -175 vs. +145 |
Prelims on ESPN+ start at 10 a.m. ET.
| Matchup: | Records: | Weight Class: | Odds via DraftKings Sportsbook: |
| Ibo Aslan vs. Rafael Cerqueira | 13-1 (1-0 UFC) vs. 11-0 | Light Heavyweight | +102 vs. -122 |
| Geoff Neal vs. Rafael Dos Anjos | 15-6 (7-4 UFC) vs. 32-16 (21-14 UFC) | Welterweight | -325 vs. +260 |
| Mateusz Rebecki vs. Myktybek Orolbai | 19-2 (3-1 UFC) vs. 13-1-1 (2-0 UFC) | Lightweight | +260 vs. -325 |
| Abus Magomedov vs. Brunno Ferreira | 26-6-1 (2-2 UFC) vs. 12-1 (3-1 UFC) | Middleweight | -148 vs. +124 |
| Kennedy Nzechukwu vs. Chris Barnett | 12-5 (6-5 UFC) vs. 23-8 (2-2 UFC) | Heavyweight | -800 vs. +550 |
| Farid Basharat vs. Victor Hugo | 12-0 (3-0 UFC) vs. 25-4 (1-0 UFC) | Bantamweight | -750 vs. +525 |
| Ismail Naurdiev vs. Bruno Silva | 23-7 (2-2 UFC) vs. 23-11 (4-5 UFC) | Middleweight | -170 vs. +142 |
| Rinat Fakhretdinov vs. Carlos Leal | 22-1-1 (4-0-1 UFC) vs. 21-5 | Welterweight | -245 vs. +200 |
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